


Futureflash

by amyfortuna



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alien Technology, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-02
Updated: 2007-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-26 20:01:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/287304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tosh is cleaning up yet another alien artifact when she has a strange vision. Takes place after TW Series 1.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Futureflash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [michelleann68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/michelleann68/gifts).



> This was written for the tw_dwficathon in March 2007. michelleann68 requested "banter, creative use of Alien Tech, background info on one character", as well as "Jack/Tosh friendship". While 'Fragments' and the rest of Series 2 didn't exactly joss this, it's still a Series 1 take on the Jack and Tosh friendship.

I love my job. I never could have imagined anything half this cool when I was a kid, even though I was into computers from a very young age -- I remember my parents getting their first Macintosh, a Mac Plus, shortly after we moved back to London from Osaka in 1986. I was better at finding my way round it than they were.

I also love my boss -- no, not that way, I'm not...well. He is very easy on the eyes, to be fair, but he just doesn't tweak my buttons like that. And my heart has a tendency to do really stupid things -- I get schoolgirl crushes on twats like Owen and have lesbian affairs with aliens rather than fall for someone decent. No, rather, I genuinely like him and care about him as a friend. He's a good person as well as a good person to work with.

Besides, after what I saw when we fell into 1941, and what I've seen since then, it's pretty fair to state that I don't think I'm Jack's type.

It was several days after Jack returned from wherever he'd vanished off to after the whole death and resurrection thing. No matter how we tried, we couldn't get anything out of him about that. Finally Owen and I gave up the questioning as a bad job; Gwen kept at it, that police officer curiousity not beaten out of her yet apparently. One of the first things people generally learn in Torchwood is that you don't and can't know what makes Captain Jack Harkness tick, no one does. Gwen was taking a bit longer than normal to catch on to this.

I was staying later than usual one evening, testing an artifact we'd run across while we were caught up in the whole big scary demon that kills with its shadow mess. We hadn't had time to deal with it until now, so it had waited quietly in a box in the archives for ages. It was an odd twisted shape, a small coppery metal bowl fastened on top of a stand made from the same metal.

In the time it had been there, a light green film, like rust, had formed on top of it. It was stored dry, so the only thing I could think was that it was affected by the humidity in the cave. In any case, the 'rust' needed to be removed before anything could be done.

Carefully snapping latex gloves on, I rubbed a finger over the surface. A little bit of the green rust came off on my fingers, but absolutely nothing untoward happened. Growing a little bolder, I rubbed at it a bit more, down toward the centre of the bowl area, removing now not the green rust, but something that was obviously dark ash. I scooped as much of it out as I could, scraping it from my fingers onto a specimen tray for analysis.

There wasn't much in there, so it was soon cleared. It was becoming obvious what this was -- not really something all that fantastic aside from its alien quality, just a bowl for burning incense or a similar substance. There were no weird buttons to press or dials to turn. This was simply a bowl.

That was fine with me. I was nervous around alien artifacts these days, more so than I should have been for what I do.

Taking the artifact over to the dining table (my desk was covered in paperwork) to more closely examine it, I took out a sketchpad and began drawing a rough idea of it. Despite the late hour, I found my fingers moving quickly over the pad, taking notes on its appearance, colour, shape, smell. It smelled of metallic tang mixed with a faint scent of something, something else, something I couldn't quite identify. Something quite nice, really.

 _"Sir, I think I've lost those papers, sir. I need some harsh discipline."_

What the hell? I sat up. Somehow Ianto was leaning against the other side of the long table I was seated at, half-sitting on it. He was half turned away from me, speaking toward Jack's office. What was he wearing? Very little indeed. I blinked, and looked again, but he was still there, and not only was he still there, Jack was there too, a knee edging between Ianto's thighs, hands twisted in his hair.

"Hey!" I stood up. "Guys, what the fuck! This isn't the place!" They didn't seem to hear me, didn't even turn toward me.

I looked up at the clock. Instead of the eight o' clock it had read a few seconds before, it now read just before midnight.

 _"Harsh discipline, hmm?"_ Jack said, leaning over Ianto, looking commanding in the way only he could. Half a joke, all serious.

 _"Shall I turn you over my knee? Give you a good whipping like you deserve with the flogger in there? Smack you a few good ones with the birch? Or how about some humilation? I could call you some choice names, some that haven't even been invented yet. I could fuck your pretty mouth, get halfway to choking you with my cock?"_

Ianto squirmed, especially at that last question. I sank back down into my seat, feeling lightheaded. The room seemed fuzzy. Only Ianto and Jack stood out from the haze and they looked larger than life. I kept my eyes on them, half from a desperate desire to anchor myself to something that looked real, and half from ... well, they were a sight for sore eyes, anyone would admit.

I was in the middle of making a mental note to warn everyone else about this particular artifact when Ianto slid to his knees in front of Jack, effortlessly unbuttoning his trousers. From my position, I couldn't quite see what he was doing, but it was pretty damn obvious from the little moaning noises Jack was making, the way he was twining his hands in Ianto's hair. Apparently Ianto was very good at sucking people off.

Aside from my earlier failed attempt to get their attention, I had no idea if they could see me or not. Dizzy as I felt, I wasn't about to try again, or even move. So I just watched.

Jack's fingers tightened in Ianto's hair, and Ianto moaned around Jack's cock. _"Oh yeah, you're so good at that, Ianto,"_ Jack said, totally lost in the moment. After another few seconds, Jack pulled away, looking down at Ianto, who was flushed and gasping.

 _"Stand up,"_ Jack ordered, but the sternness was completely out of his voice, and he looked more tender than anything else. He extended a hand to Ianto, and Ianto stood up, head down, trembling a little.

Whatever game they were playing, the script was no longer being followed. Jack moved in towards Ianto, hands cupping his face, kissing him, gently.

 _"Did you rip our dialogue straight off of nifty.org?"_ Jack said softly, grinning at Ianto.

 _"I did correct the grammar and spelling somewhat, sir,"_ Ianto said, smiling back at Jack.

Very dizzy now, I closed my eyes for a minute to allow my head to stop spinning. When I eventually opened my eyes, it was to Jack, fully dressed, standing over me, shaking me by the shoulder. My eyes went immediately to the clock -- it was just past eight o' clock, and the date was the same.

"Tosh! Are you okay?" he asked. "You were working on the artifact, and you passed out."

"Look out for it," I said, still feeling slightly fuzzy. "It does weird things to your head."

"Ianto!" Jack called.

"Yes, sir?" Ianto appeared at the door of Jack's office, also fully dressed.

"Get a metal box for this thing," Jack said. "We're going to put in back in storage for now."

I pulled my notepad off the table. "We need the ash inside the bowl examined, and I think the issue may be the content of the ash, not the bowl itself."

"Okay," Jack said, "but for now, do you want to try standing up?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'm fine, I just need a minute."

Truth be told, I felt like I had a hangover, and I was completely confused about what had happened. Jack led me out of the building entirely, telling me he thought fresh air might help.

It was late winter chilly outside, the coldest breeze coming off the water, but it was helping to clear my head somewhat.

"What happened, then?" Jack asked, leaning against the railing, both of us looking out to the bay.

"I had some sort of vision. It was midnight of today, and I, umm, you and Ianto were..."

He turned toward me with a curious look. "You were still in the building in your vision?"

"Exactly where I was sitting the whole time," I said.

"That's odd," he said. "What else? Ianto and I were there?"

"Yeah, you were, you were engaged in," I could feel my face burning, "sex."

"Also very odd," he turned to look at me, and then laughed at my expression. "Not odd for me and Ianto to be having sex --"

"I did not need to know that!" I said, but the ridiculousness of the whole thing was getting to me and I was starting to laugh too.

"Odd for you to have visions about it," he finished. He paused and looked away out to the bay again for a moment.

"I think I know what the substance might have been," he said, finally. "Once I encountered a drug that gives visions of the future. It's mostly used by warriors to predict the outcome of battles, because it gives you an idea of what might take place at an exact physical location a few hours in advance."

"So you're saying that's what will be happening around midnight tonight?"

Jack grinned. "Might be," he said.


End file.
